Amina

Amina

YA fiction
"Still, sometimes she was jealous of her cousins' easy lives in
Norway or Canada. They would never again face a truck load of men
with guns. They no longer ran from danger--down alleys, through back
ways, across chunks of asphalt where the street had buckled from an
explosion. The sun beating down, sweat running in rivers down her
arms and legs underneath her long, black dress. The worst they could
complain about, living in those cold northern countries, was frost
bite. Whatever that was."
Existence in Mogadishu, Somalia has become hard and precarious.
Amina, protagonist of J. L. Powers' Amina, has never known a life free
from war. The second story of her house was destroyed by a grenade.
She's seen a classmate blown up by a land mine.
Many people, including the cousins alluded to above, have fled
to safer countries. Amina's professional parents have been given
opportunities to leave. Knowing the risk they were taking, they have
chosen to stay to help make their country a better place. In the
words of her mother, "If everybody who has an education or a good
heart leaves, what will be left?"
But things are about to get a lot worse for Amina's family. Her
father, an artist who makes political statements through his work, is
taken from his own home by soldiers with guns, sold out by a supposed
friend. Her brother, Roble, is kidnapped to fight in an army of
religious extremists. How can a young girl, her hugely pregnant
mother, and frail grandmother survive?
Read the book and see.
On a personal note, I had the day off from work. Eugene and I went to
a family winter birthdays party Amber and Brian threw. Katie, Jacob,
Adam, and Asia were there. All my kids and their significant
others!!! We had a lovely dinner topped off by strawberry shortcake
birthday cake. We talked for hours. That totally made my month.
A great big shout out goes out to Amber and Brian for throwing the
party, the whole family for coming together, and Joey cat for being so
happy to see me when I got home.
jules hathaway


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